The Importance of Water for Survival

Finding water can
be an essential skill to have. A human can't live more
than a few days without water. You must drink plenty of
water even if you do not feel thirsty.

The importance of water cannot be
overstated. Without water our bodies internal functions
go haywire and quickly shutdown causing a rather quick
death.
For short- and long-term survival the importance of
water cannot be emphasized enough. Stock up on power
bars and forget the water and you will find yourself
dead with a stomach full of power bars. Without water
the body cannot digest its food, especially proteins.
Digestion is just one of the many functions of the human
body in which water plays a major role.
The importance of water becomes critical in humans as
we age because the human body naturally retains less
water. The body of a forty-year old is made up of 55%
water.

In
desert survival scenarios people often
make the mistake of thinking they’re not
sweating because their skin is not wet.
What is happening is that the sweat is
evaporating quicker than it can collect
on the skin’s surface. If you rest your
hand on your skin for a few moments you
will find it dripping with sweat.

A lot
of water is lost through sweating just
sitting in one place doing nothing. Up
to two and a half quarts of water every
day. In extreme hot weather it’s
possible to lose a gallon of water per
hour in sweat. Cody Lundin author of,
“What To do When All Hell Breaks Loose”,
recommends three gallons of water per
person per day. If extreme activity is
going to be taking place then he advises
even more.

The
need to transport that much water per
person per day in hot climates
necessitates that one gets themselves in
as good as shape as possible for the
strain of carrying several gallons of
water long distances.

Dehydration is often mistaken being
hungry with being dehydrated. So you
see you can lose weight and have more
energy by drinking more water. This
takes a bit of vigilance because we tend
not to drink water when we’re not
thirsty. We need to remember to drink
water when we’re not thirsty.

Don’t
depend on thirst to tell you when to
drink. If you’re thirsty you already
need to make up a quart and a half of
water in your system. The best way to
tell is the color of your urine.

You
want your urine to look clear as water,
no color. If you take vitamin
supplements then these will color your
pee yellow, especially folic acid (B
vitamins). In that case you want to
make sure you’re urinating frequently.